In the past several years, the Internet or World Wide Web (“the web”) has become a relatively common source of various types of news, information, and entertainment. For many users, the Internet is frequently searched and referenced as a research tool; while for others, the Internet operates more as a link to the unreachable—whether it is a product or service—that is perhaps only available to the user via the Internet.
Admittedly, Internet users can spend hours browsing through pages and pages on the web. Unfortunately though, much of that time may be undesirably consumed by revisiting particular web pages to see if any content on the page has changed. This is because traditional browsing systems include a history display that may remind the user of the web pages that he/she has visited within a given period of time. However, no other useful information can be obtained or extracted. Newer systems employ techniques to modify visualizations of the respective hyperlinks to inform the user that the content on the hyperlink has changed in some way. These systems may have their own limitations as well. Although such techniques can assist the user in determining which pages to revisit, they still require the user to click on the hyperlink to see or obtain the changes.